4 cultural organizations/structural support initiatives that need wider replication

I have written a bunch about cultural planning, including various pieces in response to the recent release of the DC Cultural Plan.

In talking with the project manager for the plan, he said that the plan's approach was based on moving from arts as an urban revitalization initiative to arts and equity.

I've thought about that for awhile and while I do agree that's a reasonable approach, I still think that my overarching point, that DC's locally focused arts and culture "ecosystem" is significantly underdeveloped (along the lines of the political underdevelopment thesis applied to Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s, when I was in college) and stunted, is more seminal, and therefore, where the focus needs to be is on developing a robust and functional local arts and culture ecosystem. In short, while equity is a key and important lens to apply to culture planning, it shouldn't be the overarching approach. At least, not when there isn't a full-fledged functioning local arts system.

In "What would be a 'Transformational Projects Action Plan' for DC's cultural ecosystem," I organized recommendations in four categories: (1) creating anchoring institutions; (2) creating cultural infrastructure and culture planning; (3) events and programming; and (4) media.

Since the time that the DC Culture Plan was released (late April, and I have to say the food at the launch was the best ever of any public meeting I've been to), I've come across some supra-best practice examples that I need to incorporate in my writings going forward.

1. Philadelphia's CultureWorks organization.

I get really tired of hearing people in the area talk about the need to "incubate" arts organizations, the desire to create "incubators," etc.

The problem isn't starting an organization, it's maintaining it, in a milieu where most major funders support national institutions, there aren't all that many locally focused cultural institutions of weight, there isn't enough quality media coverage of the arts, and the cost to buy or rent buildings and space is very high, especially in good locations.

CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia isn't an incubator so much as it is a maintainer ("How CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia embodies the collaboration ethos," Generocity).

It functions as an overarching home for arts and culture initiatives, and some people would call that incubation, especially since it's organized physically like a WeWork space, but it also provides administrative and legal support, help with fundraising and other services. In the argot of nonprofit legal matters, it functions as a "fiscal agent and sponsor" of the groups.

A maintaining organization providing high quality technical assistance and support at a cost less than what the arts organization could do on its own makes sense to me.

2.  New York City's Cultural Institutions Group

I sort of knew about this, but it's important to call out as an example of a regularized grant funding system for designated cultural institutions serving "local interests". From the webpage:

The Department of Cultural Affairs' mission of fostering dynamic public partnerships with private cultural organizations has its most dramatic expression in its relationship with the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG). The 33 members of this group are each located on City-owned property, and receive significant capital and operating support from the City to help meet basic security, maintenance, administration and energy costs. In return for this support, these institutions operate as publicly-owned facilities whose mandate is to provide cultural services accessible to all New Yorkers.

The CIG represents a broad spectrum of cultural endeavor, from art and natural history museums to historical societies, theaters, concert halls, performing arts centers, botanical gardens and zoos. Institutions range from the internationally renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Academy of Music to community-based organizations such as the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and the Staten Island Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden.

The genesis of this public-private partnership began in 1869, with the creation of the American Museum of Natural History. Since that time, each Institution's relationship with the City has commenced in ways that reflected the City's cultural priorities of the time.

It has similar functions to ArtsWave in Cincinnati, Denver's Scientific and Cultural Fund, etc.  But it is different, as the organizations are a kind of hybrid.  The land they are on and the building's are municipally owned, even if the organizations raise other capital monies, and they are considered municipal cultural institutions, even though they are separate nonprofit organizations.

3.  Maryland Arts Summit, arts and culture organizations conference

It was last week.  I didn't go.  But I am a huge fan of these kinds of conferences as technical assistance, practice group development, and community building initiatives. If you want people and organizations to be able to get better at what they do, subsidize technical assistance and training capacity and events. For example, in the parks field, Greater Atlanta's Park Pride organization sponsors an annual themed conference, the Parks and Greenspace conference, with some of the nation's best practitioners and technical experts as presenters.

4.  Music Venue Trust, UK.

Independent, often small, music and events spaces have a hard time continuing to exist in the face of rising rents, competition for acts especially from well-financed corporations, limited financial support and technical assistance from community cultural planners, and competition for space for other types of developments.  I've written about this vis a vis Austin, Texas and Toronto.

The Music Venue Trust is a national organization created in 2014, providing this kind of technical assistance to local venues, not unlike how the Trans-Europe Halles network functions across Europe or the League of Historic American Theatres in the US.

-- "Can the Music Venue Trust save Britain's pub circuit?," Guardian
-- "Music Venue Trust celebrates grassroots funding breakthrough," Music Week